BJP keeps infighting and anti-incumbency at bay in MP to storm back to power

The BJP, which was grappling with anti-incumbency and infighting among its ranks, managed to turn the election in its favour after Union Home Minister Amit Shah took over the reins of the campaign, troubleshooting factionalism while helping to energise ground-level workers.

Shivraj bounces back

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was sidelined by the BJP in the initial stages of the campaign, defeated his nearest rival Vikram Mastal of the Congress in Budhni by a massive margin of over 1.04 lakh votes.

Chouhan bounced back riding on his schemes for women, including the gamechanger Ladli Behna Yojana which provides a stipend of Rs 1,250. At his residence in Bhopal, Chouhan was surrounded by “Ladli Behnas” who showered petals on him as he bowed down before them.

Speaking about the difficulties he faced, Chouhan said, “Ladli behnao ne saare kaate nikal diye. (The Ladli Behnas removed all obstacles). Brother and sisters came together and the whole state was united. For me, women are idols of goddesses and I worship them.”

Throwing light on the win, state BJP president V D Sharma told The Indian Express, “We went into the election with Amit Shah’s formula and focused on our booth-level workers. That, along with the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, his policies and the Ladli Behna scheme of Shivraj Singh Chouhan delivered us this historic win.”

The BJP’s win came as it managed to defend its strongholds including the Malwa region, considered to be bellwether. The party had managed to retain its strongholds in the Vindhya and Bhopal regions and even managed to breach the Congress bastion in Mahakoshal region where it flipped over a dozen seats.

How heavyweights fared

To beat anti-incumbency, the BJP fielded party weightweights. Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar was the party’s candidate from Dimani while Union Minister of State for Food Processing Prahlad Patel was fielded from Narsinghpur. Party national general secretary leader Kailash Vijayvargiya was in the fray from Indore-1 while the party fielded Union Rural Development minister Faggan Singh Kulaste from Niwas.

Kulaste lost the election to Congress’s Chain Singh Warkade by a margin of 9,723 votes while Tomar won by a margin of 24,461 votes. Patel managed to retain his family bastion by a margin of 31,310 votes.

Vijayvargiya trounced the incumbent Congress’s sitting MLA Sanjay Shukla as he won by a margin of 57,939 votes.

The BJP ruled Madhya Pradesh from 2005 to 2018 and, after a brief stint out of power, returned to the helm in 2020 as Jyotiraditya Scindia walked out of the Congress. It resulted in the fall of the Kamal Nath-led government.

Neck-and-neck in Gwalior-Chambal

In the Gwalior-Chambal region, considered a Congress stronghold, the biggest upset for the BJP was that of state Home Minister Narottam Mishra, who lost to the Congress candidate Bharti Rajendra by a margin of 7,742 votes in Datia. Bharti, has been contesting against Mishra since 2008, and was defeated by a thin margin of 2,656 votes in 2018.

The Congress won Raghogarh, where son of former CM Digvijaya Singh and sitting MLA Jaivardhan Singh retained the seat defeating his nearest rival by 4,505 votes.

The other seats in the region that the Congress won include, Sheopur, Vijaypur, Jaura, Morena, Pohari, Bamori, Ashok Nagar, Gwalior Rural, Gwalior East, Bhander and Dabra, where Scindia loyalists Imarti Devi lost to her relative Suresh Raje by a margin of 2,267 votes.

The BJP, however, gave the Congress a tough fight in the region and won Sambhalgadh, Sumawali, Bhitarwar, Karera, Shivpuri, Picchore, Bhind, Lahar, Mehgaon, Gwalior, Gwalior (South), Kolaras, Guna, Chahchoura and Chanderi. In Lahar, Govind Singh (72), the former Leader of the Opposition and seven-time Congress MLA lost by 12,397 votes.

Pichhore MLA KP Singh, who was fielded from Shivpuri by the Congress after sports minister Yashodhararaje decided not to contest, also lost by a huge margin of 43,030 votes.

In Chachoura, former CM Digvijay Singh’s brother, Lakshman Singh was trailing against the BJP candidate Priyanka Penchi, by 61,785 votes.

MPs in the fray

The BJP had also fielded four MPs, including the chief whip Rakesh Singh from Jabalpur West, Uday Pratap Singh from Gadarwara, Ganesh Singh from Satna and Riti Pathak from Sidhi.

In Sidhi, where a controversy had erupted over a tribal man being urinated upon by a man with alleged BJP links, the party managed to secure a comfortable lead of 35,805 votes. The party also managed to secure its base of Kol tribe voters and the incumbent, four-time BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla, who contested as an Independent after being denied a ticket over the incident, failed to dent the BJP prospects.

While Rakesh Singh won by a margin of 30,134 votes, Uday Pratap Singh trumped his nearest rival, Sunita Patel of the Congress, by 56,529 votes.

However, Ganesh Singh lost by 4,041 votes.

In Khargone, where there is significant anger among the Muslim voters over riots, the BJP managed to win by a margin of 13,765 votes over sitting MLA Ravi Joshi. A similar fate awaited the Congress in Damoh, where the BJP candidate Jayant Malaiya won by a margin of 51,351 votes.

Controversy had broken out in a minority school in the district after a poster of class X female students wearing a headscarf emerged. The BJP has alleged that the school was involved in religious conversion and even here the Congress had remained silent over the controversy.

Fate of crossovers

Several BJP leaders had over the past few months crossed over to the Congress. Amongst them Deepak Joshi, son of former CM Kailash Joshi, one of the founding members of the BJP, had joined the Congress over being sidelined by the BJP. Deepak lost the election from Khategaon by a margin of 12,542 votes.

Scindia loyalists, who took out massive car rallies to send a message to the BJP as they switched back to the Congress just ahead of the elections, tasted defeat. Bodh Singh Bhagat lost by 21,931 votes from Katangi while Samander Patel lost by 2,364 votes from Jawad. Baijnath Yadav also was defeated from Kolaras by a margin of 50,973 votes.

Madhya Pradesh Congress president Kamal Nath conceded defeat and said he would, in the coming days, analyze the shortcoming. Nath, who won by 36,594 votes in Chhindwara said, “We will analyze loopholes and why we were not able to make voters understand our point. We will hold discussions with all, be it a winning or losing candidate,” he said.